Nostalga Memories In "Facing It"

Nostalgic Memories Are Not Always Positive Ones

Just as farmers brand their livestock in order to claim them as their own, humans do the same when it comes to important events. There are certain moments in one's life when an incident is so powerful, emotionally or physically, that it leaves a mark on a person forever. The branded symbol that is left could be positive or negative, but there is no doubt that it has caused a wave of all-encompassing feeling. And although when looking back at the past the majority of our memories tend to be viewed with a black and white perception, it is these rare occurrences when a certain event can be so distinct that it is like experiencing it once more. This experience that was once felt with the body and the mind is now felt forever in the heart and soul. The nostalgic memories are not always seen as the positive memories that one wishes to. However, sometimes those are the only ones that you can remember.

Yusef Komunyakaa's poem "Facing It," written about the flooding of vibrant flashbacks of war when a veteran visits the Vietnam Veterans Memorial site, is a poem which fully incorporates an underlying theme of nostalgia. Equally, in "Ghost of a Ghost," written by Brad Leithauser, a man is distraught over the fact that despite the remembrance of his accident, his family has totally forgotten him and moved on. These poems, which apparently both deal with the issues of death and remembrance, portray a sense of nostalgic value in that one character wants to return to what he once knew, while the other is desperately trying to flee from any memory of his past experience. Mutually, the poems "Facing It" and "Ghost of a Ghost," respectively, deal with the reflection of the past as well as the current damage associated in the remembrance of such distinctive events.

Stylistically, Komunyakaa has written a deeply meaningful poem. His frequent use of techniques such as alliteration and flashback, as well as his overall construction of the poem, easily conveys the anguish and torment that comes along with remembering something that one has tried so hard to forget. Komunyakaa's use of alliteration has helped to slow down time, in a way: Phrases such as "My black face fades" (Line 1) take a longer time to read, and therefore, one has more time to let words sink in. Saying that the character's face is fading not only represents emotion through word choice and diction but it allows certain words to be read with more force, which expresses the author's idea that that word has extreme importance to the overall content and theme of the piece. Komunyakaa also makes clear use of flashback throughout the poem: "I see a booby trap's white flash," "A white vet's image floats closer to me ... he's lost his right arm". Literary devices such as this one provides evidence towards the general tone of the poem: a dreary and depressing image of a past incident. The way the poem is constructed is also confirmation that Komunyakaa wants certain words and phrases to be prominent. His use of enjambment forces one to concentrate on certain thoughts: "I turn that way--I'm inside" causes one to imagine that the main character is deep inside his train of thought; however, when reading the next line it is obvious that the literal meaning of the phrase is that the character is inside the memorial. The author does this on purpose, nonetheless, in order to give dual meaning to his words and even more effect to his piece.

The main character in Komunyakaa's poem is having an extremely hard time dealing with the past; his confrontation of it only brings back destructive memories of a painful experience. The narrator cannot even read the names on the granite, written in memory of all who died during the Vietnam War, without remembering the pain and suffering of a soldier: "I touch the name of Andrew Johnson; I see the booby trap's white flash" (lines 17-18). Even though he has all intentions of putting the dreadful past in his hindsight, the recollection of something as harmless as a name brings with it every horrible memory imaginable. And although the main character has promised himself that he would not cry and has convinced himself that he is composed of "stone," he comes to the realization that he is only a human made of "flesh" who is running from a horrifying experience. Therefore, his "clouded reflection eyes [him]" (line 6) and he now knows that he is not as strong as he imagined; the past is something that has to be confronted, not escaped. His sub-conscious desire to "erase names" is even further proof that the narrator wishes to rub away any impact that his past has had on him. Even up to the very last line of the poem, it is easy to see that the main character is struggling between his craving to forget the past and his acceptance of it. For example, "In the black mirror a woman's trying to erase names." (lines 29-30) In attempt to erase the names they are trying to bring back to life